control

Forms

control n (plural controale)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French contrôle, the source that DEX, Marcu & Maneca's DN, Marcu's MDN, DILF, MDA2, Tiktin, Ciorănescu and DELR all name.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][1]} The feminine variant controlă of Transylvania and Bukovina is borrowed from German Kontrolle.^{[8][9][7][10]}

The French noun goes back to contre-rôle (“duplicate register”), from contre (“against”) and rôle (“register, roll”).^[9][11] The DHLF dates the compound to 1367; it replaced Old French contrerole (1242), from Medieval Latin contrarotulus, made of Latin contrā (“against”) and rotulus (“roll”), a diminutive of rota (“wheel”).^[11][9] It was a register kept in two copies, one used to check the other.^[11] The German noun was itself taken from French in the 18th century.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1829.^[9][7] Tiktin glosses it “control, supervision”, and in the plural controale “list of names, army roll, register”.^[7] The agent noun controlor “inspector”, from French contrôleur and German Kontrolleur, is recorded earlier, in 1793.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The French sense “duplicate register” lived on in Romanian: CADE and the DA define a register kept to check another one, and the plural controale became the rolls of an army, from which an officer could be struck off.^[13][10][14] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 gives the place or office of the inspector, and figuratively supervision and reproof.^[15] Costinescu (1870) adds censure and criticism.^[15][16] It also named the mark stamped on gold and silver objects to show that they had been tested.^[13][14][10]

The main modern sense is regular checking of an activity, with set phrases such as lucrare de control “a test paper” and punct de control “checkpoint”; it extended to supervision and domination, to control over one's own movements, and to the body that does the checking.^[2][3] The verb controla (1835) is from French contrôler.^[9]

Timeline

• 1793 – the agent noun controlor “inspector”.^[9]
• 1825 – controloriță, a female inspector, in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[9]
• 1829 – control, the first record.^[9][7]
• 1835 – the verb controla “to check, supervise”.^[9]
• 1848 – Negulici: the inspector's office, and figuratively supervision.^[15]
• 1870 – Costinescu: supervision, censure, criticism.^[16]
• 1879 – controlabil “that can be checked”, in Eminescu.^[9]
• 1894 – autocontrol “self-control”.^[9]
• 1925 – incontrolabil “uncontrollable”, in Arghezi.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Regular or permanent verification of an activity or situation, to follow its course and improve it: lucrare de control “a test paper”, punct de control “a checkpoint”.^[2][6]
2. Continuous supervision, moral or material; mastery, domination.^[2][3]
3. Command of one's own gestures and movements, self-control: Șoferul a pierdut controlul mașinii. “The driver lost control of the car.”^[2][4]
4. A body or group of people that supervises certain activities.^[2][3]
5. (military, plural) the rolls or registers of a unit's personnel.^[3][7]

Word family

• autocontrol
• controla
• controlabil
• controlor
• incontrolabil

Usage notes

The plural is controale, and controluri is old.^[6][10] Scriban kept controluri for checks and controale for registers and hallmarks.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 231
3. ^ a b c d e Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. control
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. control
5. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. control
6. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 499
7. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. control
8. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. control
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. control
10. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. control
11. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 528
13. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. control
14. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 342
15. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. control
16. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 247